People being banned left and right. WHAT is going on LL??

Alright I'm very very curious as what is going on LL. People are being banned left and right for supposed "fraud". This has happened to several people I know, but one in particular was downright unneeded. A friend of mine who owns a store called syntech designs "Roli Skytower" was banned for fraud. He told me he was buyin 25k l$ and, he sent it to his partner in syntech. His partner in turn sent him 106 usd. it was a legal transaction. Roli got his lindens legally from LL. He even showed LL his bank transactions and statements, and they still banned him. Obviously there is more to this whole thing, which I don't know of. He was a good man who made an honest living. Please will someone enlighten me as to what is going on.

Sincerely
Pissed Off Resident

*if this is in the wrong section please move it*

The first question that comes to my mind is: How did LL even find out about that deal? If I purchased lindens and gave them to someone in SL there is no problem with that (though 25,000 is a rather large amount........but not too terribly much). But, when the reciever of the lindens paid USD's back to the purchaser.........that's what is puzzling me. How did LL know someone sent a check, bank transfer, or walked across the street to pay the money? The only thing I can think of is there was a trigger that set some alarm off. That could be anything from a sting operation, to the actual transaction that got your friend banned being one of many other similar transactions that pointed to something illegal.........such as money laundering.

I think there's more to the story than you might be aware of.

It could be fallout from another deal unrelated to him.

If they detect fraud they tend to freeze all accounts that had anything to do with anything, even bystanders, until things get sorted out.

Don't panic, and try further to ascertain the reason why it happened. Companies have a tendency not to harm the people paying them unless it's for a very, very good reason.

_Minimally competent_ companies have a tendency not to harm the people paying them unless it's for a very, very good reason.

Des its also possible that passing the 25kL$ tripped the Risk API. I have hear of it happening for less of a sum before if the person is not in the habit of moving that much cash around or is not buying something or paying a known landbaron.

Hi, Byron, welcome to the forums.

I haven't seen a bunch of other posts complaining about random bannings, so I'm thinking perhaps there's been some activity among your circle of acquaintances that LL finds suspicious. As Des said, this can happen when they are trying to track down possible money laundering and the like. Those checks have been triggered in the past when an avatar that doesn't usually make big dollar transactions begins to do so suddenly; if your friend can prove the legitimacy of his transactions, the suspension will be quickly lifted.

Also, LL has been banning/suspending users of particular 3rd-party viewers (no, not Emerald) when they use content-stealing features.

Yes I am new, and usually I don't have problems with anything LL related but this is rediculous in my opinion. Oh and he did show the bank statements as well as the transaction. To top it all off he told me about what he was doing. If he was doing something illegal he wouldn't have told me about it. He is also using Emerald or the LL viewer, but it's not an illegal viewer. I do wonder though how LL did find out about it though, but I've seen people being transfered money in the past way over 25k Lindens, and as far as his partner sending him 106 usd, that shouldn't be of any concern to LL, I really want to know what's up and thanks for all the comments, they are clearing up a few things.

LL didn't know about the RL transaction, so that doesn't come into it. The question is, where did he buy the 25k from? It seems to me that that's where LL's 'doubt' stems from.

A couple of years ago, someone I'd known in SL for a long time gave me around 120k and I sent her a cheque for the RL money. She told me that she'd saved the L$ over time, which was quite reasonable given what she'd been doing. There was no problem at all. LL didn't ask about it, or do anything concerning it. I cashed it out along with the rest of my L$. I didn't even wait until I'd done that. As soon as I had the 120k, I sent the cheque. So I think that the source of the 25k is probably what caused the problem.

Phil raises a good point, where did the 25K Linden dollars come from?

That was my first thought, but according to the OP,

I overlooked that bit. Even so, I'm sure there is more to it than the OP knows. Giving someone L$25k isn't a big deal in SL, or maybe they've put in some sort of flagging system for unusually large L$ gifts.

I agree. Certainly I'm used to giving and receiving considerably larger sums than that in tier payments to pass on to Linden Labs. When first I got into land, I did ask Live Help about this because I'd once been suspended because I'd -- in good faith and before I knew any better -- bought some L$ from a third party website that turned out to be a bit fishy, and I didn't want to risk walking blindly into trouble again. For obvious reasons, LL wouldn't tell me exactly what's going to trip their automatic security precautions, but when I told them the sums involved they said -- correctly -- that I needn't worry.

And, on the occasion I mentioned, I was able to get my account back in a matter of hours by talking to Linden Labs and reassuring them that I was an innocent victim of circumstances who'd acted in good faith.

Did the US dollars show up in his xstreetsl acct directly as US dollars? That would definitely trigger security flags unless i'm reading something wrong in the OP.

lynne